Topic: Would Nintendo survive as third party?

This is probably a very dumb thing to ask and I don't really know which subforum to post this here so... Asking this as many people say they should just "give up" after the Wii U or if the NX starts off lackluster. And personally: I'm just worried if they drop out of the console business they will automatically decide that's the end and close down, taking their IPs with them.

Do you think they will go third party if they fail again or will they just... Disappear?

They're doing fine as is...

I think they would, based on the strength of their IPs and their ability to create fantastic games.

I guess my question would be, which system(s) would they develop for? I can't see Nintendo going multiplatform. Of course, I can't see them not creating their own hardware platforms either.

I know this isn't exactly your question, but in response to this part...

...and your concerns about Nintendo dropping out of the console business or disappearing, I'd say: Stop worrying. In over 125 years of being in business, Nintendo has reported annual losses twice, I believe (when the Wii U was at its worst) — though the Wii U has been a comparative business failure (putting it lightly), Nintendo has returned to profitability for the past few years. As of 2012, they had about $10.5 billion in the bank — if you're worried about the company disappearing, I'd take a look at this GamesRadar article, which clarifies that Ninty could sustain major losses every single year until about 2052.

So basically, if Nintendo experiences about 35 years worth of consecutive losses starting this year, then they'd have to start selling assets or consider going third party. I don't think it's something to worry over.

So now Nintendo are already Nintendoomed as a third party???????

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We did it guys, we did it!

Lemme try. I wonder how the next intelligent species that comes into being after the human race becomes extinct will do. I bet they have two heads.

Did I done gud?

@TheLastLugia, Nintendo is always doomed. As someone who posts on an Internet forum about video games, you're supposed to know that.

@VelvetElvis: yeah I've gotten used to that just as I've gotten used to Rule 34 (don't google that kids) but this kind of 'speculation' is on another level. I'm actually having a fun time thinking of how this logic can be taken in other areas, can we speculate how Facebook would survive if people "gave up" messaging and they had to do... Something else? Or how about McDonald's, what if the next generation can't stand fast food, how will they do restructuring into a healthy food company? Or what if football stopped being fun, place your bets now on which football teams would be able to take up cricket or athletics.

This 'logic' has some merit I'll give it that much.

Why would Nintendo need to drop out? It's like saying Apple will suddenly stop making phones. Don't think you understand how rich Nintendo is. Amiibo's and the 3DS is making them a killing right now. They just fine right now, always have been. One console failure means nothing.

Look it's this discussion again!

Why isn't anyone talking about Sony being doomed? Their Vita has been failing for quite some time now.

And right on queue they have 2 exclusive Wii U games in the top 10 of the NPD, one in 3rd place and they occupied 3 & 4th respectively in the SKU. Oh and Pokken in March nearly matched Street Fighter V's launch in February.

Let's start talking about Capcom dropping off of the face of the Earth shall we? But nah they have Monster Hunter and Resident Evil rerelease so even they'll be fine.

Au revoir to Street Fighter though, that's for certain.

But yeah on topic Nintendo should be very, very worried. Not.

However, because they wouldn't own the hardware, I'd say that it would be difficult for them to sell games at their usual price. Overall I imagine that they wouldn't be turning over as much money as they could with their own dedicated hardware.

I think they would and probably will eventually if the NX is a commercial failure, which hate to be negative, but I don't see it being a big success.

Because the Vita isn't a main product for them so to speak. As we have seen the Vita failing isn't causing Sony to exit the video game industry. Now if the PS4 was in the same boat as the Vita then yeah.

r u for serious?

And, yes, Nintendo would be raucously successful as a third party publisher. If EA can do it with so few games than Nintendo can certainly pull it off.

Pretty sure they'd do well should Nintendo ever go Third Party, but the chances of that happening is low since they'd probably just drop out of the gaming market before having thoughts on going third party.

Sony are actually doing well with some things. They're doing well with cameras, consoles (obviously) and music. The other two actually make them more money than the PS4. But in other areas they're not doing that great. Sony Pictures is actually losing them money and you have to wonder why they even bother trying to compete against companies like Samsung and Apple in the phone/tablet space.

The way their home console line has gone I don't expect them to drop out of that race anytime soon. Portables are done but with Playstation being their third best performing category? I can't see them dropping it anytime soon. There's a lot of other things they should drop first.

Guys, maybe we shouldn't count Sony handhelds or Japanese console game out of the race just yet in our all-of-thirty-years-old medium. Time is cyclical.

The wonder of Nintendo going third party really surprises me. We're talking about a developer who barely has games that sell half a million here. Every single thing they do turns out to sell more than a million with the exception of a few.

To those who say the Wii U is a "failure", its now making a profit and I get that it won't push you or me to get one but its no longer a commercial failure compared to the Virtual Boy.

For the sake of the question, let's say that they do end up going multiplat.....well....what can you expect? Go on Steam....why would they want to even go on Xbox or PS?

First off, Sony and Microsoft are not doing as great as Nintendo when it comes to consoles alone....and we're not confident if those two will even continue game development since they are so dedicated on VR which depends if Nintendo will want to get to it or not. And frankly, if Nintendo does see the benefit of VR, then I really don't get why they can't make their own VR and compete against those two.

Then there's the problem of configuration. Nintendo will have to figure out who can afford what kind of PC and who uses these kind of specs on PC as they would want everyone to play their games. You won't find this an issue in consoles because they do it so that the games run smooth. You may think that this is not that expensive but to them, it probably will be so they will obviously do stuff that many won't seem to like at first. I mean heck, people still complain about the Miitomo not working right.

And lastly, they need a publisher depending on how low they are. If they are low enough to not publish games on their own, then getting EA, Activision etc would be a nightmare to deal with seeing as how there are many publishers out there who don't give a damn about quality but just want money by pushing development and for Nintendo, this is a bad idea.

If they can do like SEGA, it will still be a problem because Nintendo needs to make sure that their games need to sell well on this kind of market and check on quality which is still more costly.

So no....I can't picture them going to this path. Maybe when I'm dead, they probably might end up there but as long as I'm around, I don't see them going anywhere.

Not quite, the Wii U is making a profit now only because they wrote off the loses of the Wii U as an expense to keep the ledger in the black going forward.